san salvadoloreans

A game of spanish Scrabble(TM) that nicole and I played with my brother, Chris. It was great to get to hang out with Chris in El Salvador because he is the best and he knows so much about El Salvador. He was here to observe the elections and work with a group that helped the FMLN win.











These pictures were taken at the Museo de Arte Popular, a folk art museum. The scenes can represent anything from farmers working, mujeres making tortillas, important peace talks, to a sequence of a couple meeting, getting married, having sex, giving birth, and being a happy family, all contained in little egg-shaped ceramics.



Kevin is now almost completely free of amoebas! oh, and he got a haircut and a shave.



i got my first straight razor shave. this barber was incredible, like eduardo scissorhands. after he cut my hair and shaved my face he strapped a vibrating glove on and massaged my face, head and shoulders. i´m going to do this more often.

san salvadorrrrrr

Well by now we know we aren´t big city fans...but our pursuit of Chris, Kevin´s bro, led us to the crazy capital of san salvador. it really made us appreciate the small-town paradise of juayua. as soon as we got to our hotel, we learned that chris was staying right across the street! hahaha.

We´ve visited a couple of small but great museums; one full of the tiniest sculptures you´ve ever seen, and the other dedicated to civil war memoirs. Yesterday we ventured downtown and tried not to get mugged while weaving through the maze of street vendors, chicken buses and buildings. The noise alone was deafening, and we needed to get out fast. The lady at our hotel recommended bus #1 or 9, so what bus did we pick? #41a. Needless to say, we had a LONG complimentary tour and ended up who knows where-way outside of city limits-at dusk. Through sheer blessings, the driver found us a taxi and we got home safely.

Today I think we´ll stick with an organized tour and head to the beach with Chris´s group.

This is the interior of an evangelical church downtown. we´ve never seen a church quite like it-the exterior was a big dome, and it was gloomy inside with some creepy statues. but it was still nice to have a few minutes of refuge from the mayhem out on the streets.

this is our buddy pepito who lives at our hotel. he likes to bite ears and fingers, so visiting was risky. but he was just so cute...

here´s me and pepito. kevin thinks we look alike in this photo.

dang. i mean Yay!

I think I'm almost totally over the Dengue Fever that I diagnosed myself with. I had all the more common and less severe symptoms; headache, muscle and joint aches, nausea, fatigue, plus Dengue Fever is the name of a band that I have enjoyed listening to for years,
http://www.myspace.com/denguefevermusic .

As for more wonderful and interesting news, the FMLN party in El Salvador won the presidential elections 2 days ago. The people here are very happy, here is another blog that will tell you more,
http://ofamerica.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/que-viva-el-fmln-el-salvadors-left-win-elections-ends-150-years-of-military-oligarch-rule/



As beautiful democracy was being delivered in ballot boxes, Kevin and Nicole swim in beautiful water. These pools were connected by tunnels which one is able to explore through, though it is kind of scary. Kevin followed a local boy into one and swam/walked about 400 feet to the exit on the other side of the hill.

post tunnel syndrome


Today we went on a hike and found a guerrilla leader....

and then a swamp monster.


Wherever you order food here, it comes with one of these.

el salvablog

we are in el salvador, just in time for the presidential election. we didn't take any pictures of the first town we stayed in, Ahuachapan, but here is our hotel room, with hella trippy mural (look at the bottom of the page for another variation), in Juayua (sounds like what-you-want).



Papusas. they are everywhere here. kevin has been feeling under the weather with constant nauseau for about a week.

more poached fotos

looking muy tonto
nicole @ pollo campero
i wish i took this picture of a backyard wrestling match

finca de wtf

we didn´t last too long on the wwoof farm...i had heard they´re pretty hit and miss and we definitely classify this one as a ´miss.´ pretty rough around the edges, but it was beautiful, and here are a few pics.
ostriches are very cute and big in person. there was 1 male and a harem of 5-6 ladies. whenever we got close he would drop and do this mating dance that i think also means get the hell away from my girls.

this is the little house we stayed in with 3 other volunteers. electricity yes, but no shower head or hot water. i think i was the first person to clean the toilet this year.
one of several amazing sunsets with volcanoes agua, fuerte, and pacaya on the horizon.
another friendly perro, charlie, who had gone missing 3 months earlier and reappeared the day we got there.

a very precious hummingbird i found on the ground. we did our best to care for him, might have given him an overdose of sugar water...in the end he didn´t make it. i said a prayer.

blogdonavitch

eating sushi and drinking grapette in antigua

our hotel room in antigua. i watched a lot of tv and improved my spanish

Kevin on the street in immaculate Antigua.

Some of the gorgeous ruins in Antigua (they´ve had 5? devastating earthquakes over the years)

In the mangroves of Monterrico, Nicole glares at Kevin for taking this picture.

alright stop, it´s WWOOFer time

Yay we made it to the horse and ostrich farm! it´s very.... we´re not sure. currently we´re awaiting the return of Eleazar, the guy who runs the place. According to the 2 other volunteers here, he´s a rich 50-something alcoholic who doesn´t know much about either horses or ostriches. Will write more as our life here unfolds...

Last week we were spoiled rotten by Kevin´s dad in Antigua, Guatemala´s signature sheshefufu city. Then, a couple days ago my beach campaign came to fruition as Kevin finally caved and we trekked down to Monterrico. It was great to be near the ocean despite the 3 buses each way, mosquitoes, black sand (=VERY HOT), and swim-at-your-own-risk waves. Our hotel pool was luxurious, but the best part was the surrounding nature reserve. We had a boat tour among the mangroves, gorgeous birds, and 4eyed fish that jump around on the water´s surface.

2 mas para los peeps

gettin' ruined. hahaha j/k swak
this lil guy was so soft and furry and was lickin our fingers and so i petted him on the head and then our guides told me not to because he will bite my finger off

experiblogamental

I just had this great idea right now that i am going to start poaching other travelers photos from these computers that i use and post them here. i hope others do the same with my photos. sometimes it takes a very long time to upload the photos and so i look at the other pictures stored on the computer and here are 2 that stood out:

pics from nicoles camera

nicole doesn't like to blog, but i think its great and her camera had all these great pictures on it
Nicole doing morning sretches


Kevin vs. volcano